Today's news

£50m grants furore
Taxpayers face a bill of up to £50 million a year to support European students after a funding shake-up, it has been revealed. Rocketing numbers of EU undergraduates are due to study at British universities following a European Court of Justice ruling. The residency requirement for student loans and maintenance grants will be reduced from from four to three years and this can include time spent in education before university.
Daily Mail

Blair's ban provokes mixed reactions on campus
Student leaders are divided over the prime minister's decision to ban two radical Muslim groups. Jewish student groups welcomed the move to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir and al-Mujahiroun, claiming that their members had been targets of the groups on campus. But Muslim student leaders said that Hizb ut-Tahrir was a non-violent "fringe" element and that rather than banning it, the government should be supporting mainstream Muslim groups.
The Guardian

Best exam results on record for Scotland
Teenagers in Scotland have achieved the country's best exam results on record. The results of the Scottish Highers exam (equivalent to A-level) show the pass rate has increased (from 70.7 to 71.2 per cent) and the number of pupils winning A and B-grade passes is also up.
The Independent

Anger as pupils get university letter before exam results
Nearly 100 Scots pupils found out whether they had gained a university place yesterday - before they have even received their exam results. A blunder by Ucas led to letters being delivered yesterday that were not meant to be sent out until later this week. Last night, a Ucas spokesman apologised and said it would be contacting the 89 pupils involved.
The Scotsman

'Sleaze' puts women off computer games careers
There are "fabulous" career opportunities for women in designing and developing computer games but they - and their parents - are put off by the sleazy image of the industry, according to the organiser of the Women in Games 2005 conference, which opened yesterday. The conference at Abertay University, Dundee, brings together academics and students with industry representatives - most, but not all of them, women.
The Guardian

Curry spice may protect against cancer
Scientists hope they are unravelling the secrets of how a prime curry ingredient helps protect against cancer. They have found that the active agent in turmeric, the spice that colours and flavours many Asian meals, can block a cancer-promoting protein. They want to follow up tests using cell cultures in the laboratory with trials of tablets on patients.
The Guardian

GM maize cleared as animal feed
The European commission yesterday cleared imports of genetically modified maize produced by the US biotechnology firm Monsanto for use as animal feed. The commission granted Monsanto a 10-year licence to export the maize. This is the third GM product to be approved by the EU since the end of its six-year moratorium in April last year, and it comes after a tortuous authorisation process. EU governments and environmental activists have consistently questioned the safety of the maize, known as MON 863.
The Guardian

Saddam's germ war plot is traced back to one Oxford cow
A British cow that died in an Oxfordshire field in 1937 has emerged as the source of Saddam Hussain’s “weapons of mass destruction” programme that led to the Iraq war. An ear from the cow was sent to an English laboratory, where scientists discovered anthrax spores that were later used in secret biological warfare tests by Winston Churchill. The culture was sent to the United States, which exported samples to Iraq during Saddam’s war against Iran in the 1980s.The odyssey of the Iraqi anthrax was unravelled by Geoffrey Holland, a politics student and antiwar campaigner at the University of Sussex.
The Times